Palaeotis
'fossil of Palaeotis' Scientific classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Struthioniformes
Family
Struthionidae
Genus
Palaeotis
Intro The Palaeotis is believed to be what evolved to the ostrich. It resembles the closest physical look of all fossil animals. The fossil was first founded in 1930s in central Europe. Different to the ostrich although its ability to fly is really poor, it still has the ability.
'Gondwana was where the Palaeotis lived'
Habitat The Palaeotis had been found in many different countries around the world. It may be the only ratite (a group of large, flightless bird of the Gondwana origin) that originated from the northern hemisphere. Interestingly, although it has poor traveling abilities, its fossils can be found around the world, but information on the Palaeotis is not as clear.
The Palaeotis most probably lived in the Gondwana period when the world was still around 1 full piece. The climate for Gondwana is relatively mild. The average temperature had been higher than today, but there had been evidence suggesting that at one period of time, there were glaciers. The Palaeotis probably can be seen almost everywhere and was a common animal at that time.
'Probable living environment of the Palaeoti'
Physical description 1 One of the body parts of the Palaeotis that has not really changed much is the wings. Since the Palaeotis, the wings are large. The wings are probably used to protect itself from its predators, attract opposite sexes. The wings can also provide insulation for the Palaeotis.
These wings maybe developed due to the part of the world that they lived in had big variations of temperature changes.
Physical description 2 The legs that evolved to those that provided ultimate speed to the ostrich have similarities to that of the Palaeotis. The legs are long and powerful, and they probably provided relatively good speed for the Palaeotis to run away from its predators.
The environmental pressure that may have led to this adaptation is that they may have many predators, and they had to run all the time to stay alive. They slowly developed legs that can help them run faster.
Behavioral description 1 One of the behaviors of the Palaeotis is that they would swallow hard objects into their stomach to help crush food into smaller pieces. This way, water from foods can be squeezed out, and the Palaeotis do not need to drink as much water as other animals.
Behavioral description 2 One of the common behaviors that the Palaeotis had with other animals is living in big groups. This became their natural behavior because they are easily threatened when they single. When they are in big groups, they can have sufficient power to fight off some fierce animals that are a bit larger than them.
'labelled diagram of what a Palaeotis may look like'
Physiological description The heart of the Palaeotis resembles a lot to an Ostrich’s heart. It provides enough blood when the Palaeotis is running away from predators through four major veins. These veins are big enough to pump blood back and forth so that the Palaeotis does not faint after the extreme movements.
Extinction pressure The extinction of the Palaeotis is most probably caused by the tertiary mass extinction event, which is either cause by asteroid impacts or strong volcanic activities. These events caused the sunlight to be reduced to a point that photosynthesis does not work anymore, causing animals to eat plants to die off, thus affecting every animal in the food chain. It may also be due to the asteroid’s impact on earth so strong that it was like a bomb and killed off many animals.
Palaeotis
'fossil of Palaeotis'
Scientific classification
Intro
The Palaeotis is believed to be what evolved to the ostrich. It resembles the closest physical look of all fossil animals. The fossil was first founded in 1930s in central Europe. Different to the ostrich although its ability to fly is really poor, it still has the ability.
'Gondwana was where the Palaeotis lived'
Habitat
The Palaeotis had been found in many different countries around the world. It may be the only ratite (a group of large, flightless bird of the Gondwana origin) that originated from the northern hemisphere. Interestingly, although it has poor traveling abilities, its fossils can be found around the world, but information on the Palaeotis is not as clear.
The Palaeotis most probably lived in the Gondwana period when the world was still around 1 full piece. The climate for Gondwana is relatively mild. The average temperature had been higher than today, but there had been evidence suggesting that at one period of time, there were glaciers. The Palaeotis probably can be seen almost everywhere and was a common animal at that time.
'Probable living environment of the Palaeoti'
Physical description 1
One of the body parts of the Palaeotis that has not really changed much is the wings. Since the Palaeotis, the wings are large. The wings are probably used to protect itself from its predators, attract opposite sexes. The wings can also provide insulation for the Palaeotis.
These wings maybe developed due to the part of the world that they lived in had big variations of temperature changes.
Physical description 2
The legs that evolved to those that provided ultimate speed to the ostrich have similarities to that of the Palaeotis. The legs are long and powerful, and they probably provided relatively good speed for the Palaeotis to run away from its predators.
The environmental pressure that may have led to this adaptation is that they may have many predators, and they had to run all the time to stay alive. They slowly developed legs that can help them run faster.
Behavioral description 1
One of the behaviors of the Palaeotis is that they would swallow hard objects into their stomach to help crush food into smaller pieces. This way, water from foods can be squeezed out, and the Palaeotis do not need to drink as much water as other animals.
Behavioral description 2
One of the common behaviors that the Palaeotis had with other animals is living in big groups. This became their natural behavior because they are easily threatened when they single. When they are in big groups, they can have sufficient power to fight off some fierce animals that are a bit larger than them.
'labelled diagram of what a Palaeotis may look like'
Physiological description
The heart of the Palaeotis resembles a lot to an Ostrich’s heart. It provides enough blood when the Palaeotis is running away from predators through four major veins. These veins are big enough to pump blood back and forth so that the Palaeotis does not faint after the extreme movements.
Extinction pressure
The extinction of the Palaeotis is most probably caused by the tertiary mass extinction event, which is either cause by asteroid impacts or strong volcanic activities. These events caused the sunlight to be reduced to a point that photosynthesis does not work anymore, causing animals to eat plants to die off, thus affecting every animal in the food chain. It may also be due to the asteroid’s impact on earth so strong that it was like a bomb and killed off many animals.
Bibliography
-Wikipedia. (2010). Palaeotis. Retrieved July 20 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeotis
-Peter Houde. (1986). Ostrich ancestors found in northern hemisphere suggests new hypothesis for ratite origins. http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/houde/nature86.pdf (PDF book)
-Peter Houde . (1987). Palaeotis Weigelti Restudied http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/houde/Palaeotis.pdf (PDF book)
-Joel Cracraft. (2001). Mass extinction event. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/268/1466/459.full.pdf (PDF book)